According to recent data from Neilson, teens in America send, on average, 3,339 text messages every month. Three thousand, three hundred and thirty nine! And that’s the average! Which means that some kids out there send far more (and, thankfully, some send far fewer) messages. And at the same time, voice usage (that is, making actual phone calls) has decreased 14 percent since last year.

So here’s the breakdown: If a kid sends 3,000 texts a month, that’s about 6 texts for every hour he or she is awake (assuming they get the recommended 8 hours of sleep every night… but that’s a totally different story). And, if a text message takes about 20 seconds to type out (I’m not counting those ultra-fast texters out there…you know who you are) a message, that means kids are spending, on average, 20 hours a month texting.

For comparison, people ages 18-24 send roughly half of what younger teens do, about 1,600 texts per month. It’s still a lot, though.

There’s no denying that texting is sometimes easier and more convenient than making a phone call, especially if you’re not discussing anything of great importance (which, if you are, we need to have a chat about texting etiquette), but that number seems almost like an addiction!

So, do you guys have a texting addiction? How many texts per month do you send? My most recent phone bill says I sent 467, which still seems like an awful lot, but compared to a lot of people, it’s apparently not that many.